Unnamed Watership Down(will name soon)
by Erika Austin
Summary: Ulehyzinle and Nutmeg are thrown into the harsh, cruel world at a young age, forced to fight for their very lives against almost unbeatable odds. PG for later violence.


Author's Notes: Thank you all for reading this

Author's Notes: Thank you all for reading this.As you read I want you to keep in mind that I'm just a 14-year-old girl who loves writing, and loves Watership Down.It is my favorite book, so I guess it makes sense that I'm writing a fan fic about it.This is a work in progress, which means that I don't know when it's going to be done.Because I'm just a 14 year old don't be too harsh on my work when you review it.I'm no professional, and I'm not even a good amateur.Enjoy, anyway!

HainInlé means "Song of the Moon".

Uléhyzinlé means When-shine-Moon, or, "When the Moon Shines"

DISCLAIMER: Well, I do believe I own all of the characters,

exceptingEl-ahrairah and Frith and all of those type.Watership

Down is Richard Adam's.I'm not affiliated in anyway with

Richard Adams, and I don't even think he knows I exist.With

that said and done . . .

_This is dedicated to my friend Natalie-rah._

_ _

PART ONE: LOST AND FOUND 

** **

_CHAPTER 1-_

__The song of a thrush drifted through the afternoon air as Frith reached his zenith.His light shined down on the meadow below, his eyes looking over every detail.The long grass soft and flowing, it's color a deep green as if in celebration of the new summer.Small white and pink flowers poked their heads out from between the long blades, giving the meadow an extra dab of cheerfulness.The thrush's voice died away, and the breeze halted it's blowing as the meadow was framed in a perfect, peaceful moment.

The silence was shattered by the pounding of paws and the cry of voices as four young rabbits bounded into the meadow, calling back and forth to each other as they ran.The young rabbits—who were just kittens, really—didn't seem to notice that their presence had much of an effect on their surroundings.The thrush, on the other hand, took flight, startled, and rather put off.It soon became apparent that the rabbits were having some sort of argument.

"I'll cuff you 'til your fur splits!" Shouted one, a large kitten with brown fur and queer tawny splotches along his back.

"You do, Nutmeg, and I'll report you to Juniperah!"squeaked the rabbit in the lead, who had light brown fur to accompany his light brown eyes.Before Nutmeg could respond to Worray's retort, the third rabbit, HainInlé, called up to her smaller brother.

"Worray, the day the Juniperah knows you even exist is the day a homba rides in the hrududu that was outrun by a baby yona."

"It could happen!"Worray shouted back indignantly, turning his head so that his sister could hear.It was a bad idea, because it slowed Worray down.Nutmeg barreled into him full force, knocking him onto his side.Both rabbits then proceeded to bite, scratch, cuff and claw at each other with much vigor.HainInlé lost no time in joining the fight.The fourth rabbit approached, padding up lightly.Uléhyzinlé was the normal size of a three-month-old kitten.She had mousy brown fur with strange hazel eyes; all four of her paws were white.Casually walking up to her scuffling siblings, she gave them an exasperated look.They were too busy tearing at each other to notice, however.

"Hey, you oafs!Stop fighting!It's silly!Why do—" before she got the chance to finish her question, a misaimed kick caught her in the jaw. "Ouch!Why you embleer little pellets!Kick _me_, will you?"Her crusade against the fighting ended then and there as she flung herself bodily into the row, adding to the rolling mass of claws, teeth, and flying fur.

Before any of the four rabbits ever noticed someone had approached, an adult rabbit paw shot into the fray, knocking two kittens several feet away, and withdrawing with another rabbit latched on.Nutmeg was blindly gnawing on the paw, his eyes closed tight to protect them from harm.Noticing the sudden silence, he ceased chewing on what he thought to be a sibling's hind leg, timidly opened one eye, and lifted his head.He found himself gazing into the face of a doe.Releasing his grasp, Nutmeg dropped to the ground and bowed his head, waiting for the rebuke that was sure to come.

"Worray, HainInlé, Nutmeg, Uléhyzinlé!If I were elil you would be dead!Nutmeg, don't even start!I don't care if you want to practice fighting to be the Captain of the Owsla someday, it's still no reason to be beating on your brother.Besides, it'd be a pretty shabby Captain to be caught so unawares."

"But Marli . . . "

"We were just . . ."

"He started it."

"They wouldn't listen . . . "

The mother's eyes softened."Enough of that.Now come, or else you'll miss Briar's story.He's telling 'El-ahrairah and the Homba Tail'."The young rabbits' faces all lit up at the prospect of hearing one of Briar's tales.Their marli smiled, and turned back.

"Hey, you guys!I'll race ya!Last one there is stoat meat!"Quick as a flash, all four kittens were up and tearing back across the field.The doe smiled softly to herself as she followed her young ones back to the warren.

The four hlessil staggered blindly in the dark, overcast night.They knew they had to get out of the brambles and thick thorns before they could settle down for the night.With a small gasp the lead rabbit stumbled out into the open, his companions following close behind.They huddled there for a few moments, not quite sure of what to do next.The lead one's head kept darting every which way, but none of the other rabbits noticed how his eyes slid in and out of focus, or how one of his hind legs twitched once or twice.One of the rabbits turned to the lead one.

"Yewthorn, what do we do now?"

"I say we stay here for the night.We will be in as much danger here as anywhere else.I for one am not willing to go any further."

The rabbits nodded, and began to settle themselves uncomfortably on the cold ground.Yewthorn growled, and kicked one of his companions."Get out of my way," he snarled.

"Yewthorn, what's gotten into you?There's plenty of room for all of us."Yewthorn didn't seem to like this reply, and angrily butted the rabbit with his head.There was more growling and spitting from Yewthorn, before he suddenly collapsed, his hind legs kicking convulsively.The other three rabbits looked at Yewthorn in horrified fascination, when a sudden instinctive fear gripped them.Abandoning all sleepiness, the hlessil bolted away from the frightening sight of their leader twitching on the ground, who suddenly leapt up and began half running, half stumbling back into the woods blindly.They were lucky, because all of them dashed in the same general direction.

At length, they all stopped, too exhausted to run any more like that.The fear they felt was beginning to fade, but the horror was still fresh.They looked at one another, all knowing what was wrong with Yewthorn: the White Blindness.As they all crouched there, panting, the moon peeked his head out from behind the clouds, filling the meadow they had stumbled into with soft, eerie light.Several dark blots could be seen across the meadow, and after staring hard at them, the rabbits saw that they were rabbit holes.The hlessil hesitated, not knowing if they were going to be welcomed into this warren, when suddenly, the quiet night air was split by the shriek of a screech owl in the trees nearby.Without another second of hesitation, the three rabbits bolted towards the holes, driven by panic.

All three stumbled into the nearest hole, crowding into the burrow at the end of the run.The solitary buck that had moments before been dreaming of flayrah, was now jolted awake by two strange rabbits clambering over him and a third trying to squeeze himself into the already packed burrow.The buck, being and old rabbit and having seen many battles, thought at first that the warren was being attacked.Though old, he was still fit and strong, and with a slight yell he kicked one of the rabbits off of him, pulled himself to his feet, butted another rabbit viciously away, and backed against the burrow wall, bristling.To his surprise, the three strangers did not charge at him, and he felt them trying to crowd against the opposite wall.He squinted in the darkness, sensing their quaking fear.

"What do you think you're doing?" he snarled, calmer but still suspicious.The hlessi he kicked replied with a winded voice.

"We mean no harm.We ran in to get away from an owl."Beetroot, the old buck, relaxed a little more, and sniffed the air. He couldn't smell the warren's scent on the rabbits, which meant that they weren't members of the warren.

"Who are you?"   
"Hlessil.We want to join the warren."

Beetroot thought of this for a second, and then squinted again, trying to get a good look at the strangers, but all he could see were vague outlines of the three rabbits.He shuffled his paws thoughtfully, then made a quick decision.He would bring them to the Chief Rabbit, the Chief would want to know about this . . .and besides, it was getting very uncomfortable with the four rabbits crammed into one small burrow.With a decisive grunt, he nudged the nearest stranger in the direction of the run. 

"Alright, I'll bring you to Juniperah.Go on, move your tails.Out of the burrow, hurry, now."The three rabbits awkwardly backed out of the burrow backwards, turned around in the run, and hopped back into the open.The nighttime was once again silent and peaceful as Beetroot lead the three hlessil toward Juniperah's burrow.


End file.
